Wawrinka stuns Murray in straight sets
Defending champion Andy Murray was ousted from the US Open Friday, falling to Swiss ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4 6-3 6-2 in a quarter-final shocker at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Wawrinka reached his first Grand Slam semi-final by stunning the reigning Olympic and Wimbledon champion, booking a Saturday last-four date against either world number one Novak Djokovic or Russian 21st seed Mikhail Youzhny.
Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal and French eighth seed Richard Gasquet will meet in Saturday’s other semi-final.
“It feels amazing for sure, especially after that match against the defending champion,” Wawrinka said. “It was a crazy match for me to beat him in three sets.”
Relentless pressure from Wawrinka, who is deeper than 17-time Grand Slam champion compatriot Roger Federer in a slam for the first time in his career, led to a Murray meltdown that doomed his repeat dreams.
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“He played great. That was the hardest part about the match,” Murray said.
“He just hit the ball extremely well. I didn’t create a break point chance. He served well. He hit a lot of lines, was going for big shots, and he played too well.”
A grim-faced Murray set a record for hustling to the interview room, arriving before Wawrinka could even leave the court after the match, the 26-year-old Scotsman’s stoic visage a sign of his unhappiness.
“I would have liked to have played a little bit better,” Murray said. “It’s a shame I had to play a bad match today.”
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For only the second time in 146 grand slam matches, Murray failed to manage even a break point against an opponent, and it came on a day when Wawrinka ignored the wind to fire 45 winners, three times Murray’s total.
Australian pair Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua have won through to the final of the US Open women’s doubles with a 6-2 6-2 defeat of India’s Sania Mirza and China’s Jie Zheng.
The eighth seeded Australians dominated most of the semi-final and will now play the winner of the other semi-final between the unseeded Williams sisters Serena and Venus and fifth-seeded Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.
In the men’s doubles the long-standing record of South Australian tennis legend Ken McGregor remains intact after Bob and Mike Bryan’s hopes of becoming the first men’s doubles team since 1951 to claim a calendar year grand slam were shattered.
India’s Leander Paes and Czech Radek Stepanek downed the top-seeded Americans 3-6 6-3 6-4 in the semi-finals, ending the US brothers’ hopes of sweeping the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year.
The only men’s doubles duo to complete a calendar year grand slam remains the Australian pairing of Ken McGregor and Frank Sedgman in 1951.
“Realistically it will probably never happen,” said Mike Bryan as he reflected on a chance for history gone begging.
“The margins are just so fine in doubles. There are just too many great teams out there and too much can go wrong, and a lot has to go right to be in that position. So we gave it everything we had.”
Saturday is semi-finals day in the women’s draw.
Flavia Pennetta plays second seed Victoria Azarenka and top seed Serena Williams takes on fifth seed Li Na.
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